Thursday, January 7, 2010

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With 3 birthdays in January, this product review for poster accessories from Artskills could not have come at a better time. Since we just went through the whirlwind, which was Christmas, our kindergartner Jake and I thought it would be a great idea for him to make a birthday poster for the twins as his present to them rather than buying them something. After you read about how easy our project was to make, you'll have your chance to win some Artskills products for your own child to use for crafts or for school projects.

Today's Project: Colorful Birthday Poster

Ask your child to create a colorful poster for a loved one's birthday (or any other special occasion that is coming up).

Supplies Needed:

1) Any size poster board. (This is an opportunity to reuse materials by cutting out the bottom of a used gift box leftover from Christmas. That's what we did.)

Step 2: Decide what colors and types of borders your child would like to use.

Step 3: Lay out the borders around your posterboard exactly as you would like them to look in the finished product.

Tip #1: You may need to help your child crop some of the pieces of border to create a seamless look, doing your best to make the repeating shapes on the borders appear to be continuous.

Step 4: Have your child use the glue stick included with the package of borders to apply glue to the backside of each border piece. Your child (or you) should put the piece of border in place immediately after the glue is applied.

Step 5: Lay your text and eye catchers out as you would like your message to read to make sure that you have enough letters and that everything fits on the space well.

Tip #2: Planning out the text is a perfect time for a spelling lesson. Since nothing is glued on permanently yet, your child can move the letters around as many times as needed during this mini-lesson.

Step 6: Have your child apply glue to the backside of each letter, making sure to put each letter in place immediately after applying the glue.

Step 7: Repeat Step 6 with the eye catchers and any other decorations you would like to add to the background.

Step 8: Apply the rest of your text just as they had been previously laid out.

Tip #3: If you are using the self-adhesive foam letters and numbers, you could lay the letters out so they look like they are floating, rather than in a perfectly straight line. This way, your child can peel the backing off and stick each letter into place independently without the stress of accidentally sticking a letter on a little crooked.

This is our final project:

I do not think it looks like a 6 year old made this poster at all. Jake is so proud of how it turned out and cannot wait to present it to the twins on their birthday.

Thank you to Artskills for sending us posterboarding accessories to use for this project free of charge and for providing additional accessories for a contest prize.

What you can win:One lucky reader will receivean Artskills Prize Pack containing one of each of the following products:

Limitations:This giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only. You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address and be age 18 years or older. If you enter anonymously and do not include a valid email address in your comment entries, I will not be able to notify you should you win this random drawing.

How to Gain Entries:Look through the Artskills Poster Gallery. Then leave a comment telling me the title of a poster you were especially impressed by.You MUST do this to be eligible to win this contest.

Extra Entries:

1) For 5 extra entries, leave a relevant comment on one of my non-giveaway posts. Then leave FIVE separate comments with the name of the post on which you commented. You will earn 5 extra entries for each different non-contest post you comment on.

2) For 5 extra entries, enter one of my other contests. Leave FIVE separate comments here telling me which contest you entered. You will earn 5 extra entries for each contest you enter.

3) For 10 extra entries, blog about this contest linking back to this post AND Artskills.com. Then come back here and leave TEN separate comments with the link to your blog post.

7) Tweet about this giveaway linking back to this post. Then come back here and leave the link to your tweet in a separate comment. You may do this once per day until the end of the contest.

8) Subscribe to this blog's feed. Or you can follow me through Blogger or subscribe via email (widget is on sidebar). Then leave a separate comment telling me you did so.

9) Add my button or blog link to your blog's sidebar. Then leave a separate comment with the link to your blog.

(All entries will be verified prior to awarding this prize.)

Random Drawing:This contest will be closed on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 11:59pm EST. A random number drawing will be held shortly after. The winner will be announced here and will be contact via email or through their blog. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new number will be drawn.